A. Field of the Invention
The field of the present invention relates generally to devices and methods for encouraging desirable behavior in particular subjects. Specifically, the present invention relates to such devices and methods that provide positive reinforcement in the form of rewards and the like for desirable behavior and loss of such rewards and other discipline to discourage inappropriate behavior. More specifically, the present invention relates to such devices and methods that are particularly beneficial for use with children.
B. Background
As is well known, modern society depends on persons exhibiting and engaging in behavior that is generally considered acceptable, such as behavior which is positive and/or beneficial to themselves or others, and not exhibiting or engaging in unacceptable behavior, such as that which is generally negative and/or harmful to themselves or others. One of the difficulties for any society is how to encourage people to engage in the desirable behavior and discourage people from engaging in undesirable behavior. Most professional behaviorists, psychiatrists and others who deal with such matters readily agree that the key to understanding the difference between acceptable and unacceptable behavior is primarily learned when a person is a child and that children who fail to learn this difference often grow up to have behavior problems as adults. Often, the adult behavior problems can be very serious, including crime.
Children are not born knowing what behavior is acceptable and what behavior is unacceptable. Instead, children must learn this information by being taught, whether directly or indirectly, by the actions and words of those who they interact with, including parents, teachers and other caregivers. Unfortunately, telling a child once that certain behavior is acceptable and/or that other behavior is not acceptable is usually insufficient to permanently establish in the mind of the child the differences between acceptable and unacceptable behavior. Those persons who deal with children readily appreciate that children primarily learn through repetitive enforcement of the tasks and information that it is desired they know. As such, the task of teaching children the difference between acceptable behavior and unacceptable behavior involves explaining to the child what he or she needs to do or avoid doing and then repeating that information and taking steps to either encourage or discourage repetition of that behavior. The ultimate desire is for the child to automatically or somewhat instinctively, meaning without any additional input on behalf of another person, choose to act in an acceptable manner.
Despite repeated attempts to teach acceptable behavior, realistically most children will still engage in unacceptable behavior at least now and then. As such, the person attempting to encourage acceptable behavior or discourage the unacceptable behavior will usually have to repeat himself or herself several times before the child understands the difference and begins to automatically act in an acceptable manner. The desire of every parent, teacher or other caregiver who deals with children is to accomplish this learning process as efficiently as possible and without an undue amount of aggravation and/or frustration on the part of the child and caregiver.
The primary process utilized to encourage acceptable behavior and discourage unacceptable behavior in a child is through reinforcement, which is providing stimulus to the child that strengthens or increases the probability of a specific response from the child. Research has identified four primary types of reinforcement, which are commonly referred to as positive, negative, punishment and extinction. Positive reinforcement is giving something to the child, such as a treat, gift, special event or other benefit, in response to the child having engaged in or performed a desired acceptable behavior in order to increase the probability that the child will repeat that behavior in the future. Negative reinforcement is the act of removing negative stimulus, such as nagging, complaining or the like, from the child to increase the probability that the child will repeat acceptable behavior in the future. Punishment is generally considered adding something adverse, which may be discipline in the form of spanking, additional chores, yelling or the like, to the child to decrease the likelihood the child will repeat unacceptable behavior in the future. Extinction involves removing something the child desires from access to the child, such as putting away a toy, forbidding a desert or the like, to decrease the likelihood the child will repeat unacceptable behavior in the future. Most caregivers, whether they know it or not, will utilize a mixture of these four types of reinforcement when trying to teach a child the differences between acceptable and unacceptable behavior. Unfortunately, as generally well known, the efforts by the caregiver to provide behavior reinforcement to a child are not always successful.
In general, one of the primary difficulties a caregiver has when trying to teach a child to engage in acceptable behavior and discourage the child from engaging in unacceptable behavior is the need to avoid causing further harm or complications which can blur the distinction for the child between acceptable and unacceptable behavior. As well known, many common methods of attempting to encourage acceptable behavior and discourage unacceptable behavior have significant limitations, including negative consequences, that can severely limit and even counteract attempts to teach a child acceptable and unacceptable behavior. For instance, many traditional forms of discipline, including spanking, yelling, withholding privileges and time-out, only act to stop (albeit often only on a temporary basis) unacceptable behavior and generally do not do much in the way of encouraging acceptable behavior. In addition, many of the forms of traditional discipline are well known to have negative side effects and even long term negative consequences. As an example, spanking and yelling as a means of discouraging unacceptable behavior have been found to only instill fear into the child and, if utilized often, lead to long lasting psychological problems, including the feelings of powerlessness and low self-esteem, while promoting violence and possibly encouraging aggressive behavior towards others. In addition to the potential for harm, spanking and yelling also fail to focus on teaching the child the proper behavior that is expected of him or her. Withholding privileges from a child is generally ineffective because there is usually a delay between when the child engaged in the unacceptable behavior and the negative consequence of that behavior, resulting in a disconnect for the child that substantially lessens the benefit of the attempted behavior correction. Although time-out is often effective at temporarily reducing or eliminating unacceptable behavior by removing the child from one location and placing him or her alone in another location, it does not recognize or emphasize the benefits of acceptable behavior.
Several devices and methods have been developed in an attempt to reinforce acceptable behavior and to discourage repetition of unacceptable behavior. For instance, U.S. Pat. No. 5,470,235 to Papaleo describes a child behavior improvement system comprising a thin, flat generally rectangular holder or support member having a plurality of receptacles thereon, a plurality of discs that each have a reward indicia written on the disc with at least one disc placed inside each of the receptacles and a removable cover over the opening to each receptacle that has a desirable behavior goal thereon. If the child engages in the desired behavior for a particular goal, then he or she gets to retrieve the reward disc from the appropriate receptacle and gets to have or do the reward. U.S. Pat. No. 5,697,790 to Garland, et al. describes a discipline method where a caregiver selects a plurality of tokens in response to a child misbehaving and instructs the child of a suitable phrase relating to the misbehavior from one of the tokens. The child then places the token into a container and repeats the token phrase to reinforce its importance. U.S. Pat. No. 7,347,693 to Low, et al. describes an apparatus and method for teaching and reinforcing positive behavior that comprises a token receiving and article dispensing apparatus that dispenses an article in response to a token being fed into the apparatus. The article is placed inside the apparatus on a shelf such that when a token, which is given to a person in response to good behavior, is fed through an inlet in front of the shelf the article is pushed off the shelf into a chute where it is dispensed to the person. U.S. Patent Publication No. 2007/0160965 to Habing, et al. discloses a child reward center comprising an apparatus containing a plurality of tokens and a release mechanism for releasing one of the tokens, which are released by a child as a reward for good behavior. The released token moves through a token routing path for the amusement of the child and then is collected in a reservoir. Once a predetermined number of tokens are collected in the reservoir, the child is awarded a prize, which may be dispensed by the apparatus.
The above patents and other prior art show that it is well known to provide an apparatus or device for rewarding or affecting good behavior and to utilize the apparatus/device as part of an associated method to reward good behavior of a child and to positively affect the child's future behavior. Although the above-described prior art may be able to beneficially impact or improve a child's behavior, certain limitations exist that have prevented wide acceptance of these apparatuses/devices and methods. One limitation is that the foregoing apparatuses/devices are not easily portable, which prevents the caregiver from being able to carry the apparatus/device with him or her so the caregiver can act in response to acceptable or unacceptable behavior any time and place it may occur. Another limitation is that at least some of the prior art apparatuses/devices and methods are complicated to set-up and/or use and are not configured to expressly discourage bad behavior.
What is needed, therefore, is an improved device and method for use by a caregiver to reward and encourage acceptable behavior by a child and to discourage unacceptable behavior by the child. The device should be sized and configured to be easily carried by the caregiver so that he or she may have it readily available when the caregiver observes good or bad behavior by the child. Preferably, the device and method should allow the child to easily visualize and understand how he or she is doing and provide the child with a goal that can be obtained as a result of good behavior. The device and method should allow the caregiver to easily and timely reinforce acceptable behavior and discourage unacceptable behavior in a fun, non-threatening manner. Preferably, the device should be configured to be interesting and fun for the child.